So.
With the newest Sherlock Holmes based event, we saw quite a few people having fun and another portion of the Gaian population feeling quite upset that Sherlock got a fandom event "out of nowhere".
But I would like to remind you that Sherlock's pseudo-holiday was celebrated in Britain on 22/1/13 because it looks like 221B, the flat number since the beginning of the sleuth's creation. We only celebrated it today because in the US we date things differently from the rest of the world (Im not sure why, we also have our own measuring system). And people seem upset that the Sherlock fandom, which they associate with BBC's Sherlock, got a special day. What people fail to realize that there are Sherlock Holmes fans outside of the BBC TV show, Sherlock Holmes has been a part of the western world for over 100 years and even has entire areas of studies dedicated to those books, which have sparked many, many debates based around various details of the stories. It was not just a celebration of just ANY fandom, it is a celebration of THE fandom, the FIRST fandom, the fandom that spanned over 100 years. (for reference, I've been a fan of Sherlock Holmes since I was 10) (NOTE about the item: That item HAD ALREADY BEEN MADE back during the olympics when Reaper was ill, but she was too sick to upload it to the site. I talked to her inperson about getting the item up earlier than this back in september at a convention where I bought 200 dollars worth of Doctor Who and SPN art from her)

But, Sherlock is not the ONLY fandom to get a Holiday. We celebrated Star Wars this past May The 4th, which sounds like "May the Force", which is part of the phrase "May the Force be with you." Unlike 22/1/13, this holiday comes every year; Gaia only just picked up on it last year, although I do not thing we got any items from it (we only have 3-ish items for Star Wars, I think? I may be mistaken). And unlike the Sherlockians, Star Wars fans can get another crack at their holiday this year, where we could /hopefully/ see an item. The nice thing is that the staff could, if they were so inclined, to try again.

And the Harry Potter fandom got a holiday this past summer... Erm, I mean the generic wizarding fandom had a holiday to celebrate Quickage... Screw it. We all knew it was Harry Potter. Anyhoozle, Harry Potter got a cute little holiday on Gaia. We all had house names under our avatars. We didnt get any items, but we ALREADY have DOZENS of HP items (the official HP items, the 4 different wizarding school items, Levi Rei, Bad Book, to name a few) and even had a RIG loosely based off of HP, there wasnt too much more they could have given us that we didnt already have.

We also got a Sailor Moon 20th anniversary item (dont forget about the other Sailor Moon items we have, there's lots of them)

The only thing Gaia "dropped the ball" on as far as fandom events goes is Doctor Who. 2012 was the 50th anniversary, but at the same time there wasnt a specific "holiday" decided by the fandom that we could celebrate, we didnt even treat the anniversary date like a Holiday since we were all wrapped up in the 50th special (which is coming out this fall, a year late.) But they had NO obligation to give us an event, theyve ALREADY given us a lot of items for Doctor Who. A lot of them. More than most fandoms get.

And it isnt like Sherlock items are exactly flooding the market. We have the deerstalker hats (which Sherlock Holmes never actually wore, but theyre iconic none-the-less), Nice Suit, Napoleon of Crime, Jumper Collection, and Tourist Hat. So many other fandoms have just as many, if not more, items floating around Gaia. Yeah, it sucks when your fandom gets overlooked. I'm in the Homestuck fandom, PLENTY of fandoms like to ignore us. Look at the multi-fandom posts on tumblr, chances are they excluded Homestuck out of it. People have even tried banning us from conventions (but we got a bitchload of items nhgcdkne). But I'm part of SO many more fandoms that get overlooked: Smallville, Young Justice, Lorax, How To Train Your Dragon, Pokemon, Star Trek, etc. But very few fandoms are so huge and long-lived as Sherlockians, Doctor Who, Star Wars, or even Harry Potter (which isnt too old, but over 10 years is p big for a fandom, the Lorax fandom didnt even last a year).

Although, I understand that a few Gaians are just annoyed at fandom item in general, which I cannot offer any solace for. The artists are in charge of their own items and make references when they want/when appropriate. But we also have thousands on non-fandom items. Also, look at where you are: Gaia-Online. A website based around Japanese culture, a big part of the anime subculture is cosplay. Thats where fandom items come in. And yeah, it sucks. But you dont need to WEAR fandom items, theres plenty of other alternatives out there for you.

NOTE: We need a Star Trek day, dont really care about items (since we have so many of those).

Hey don't forget about that Avengers mini-event we got
It happened in concordance to the Star Wars thing
We got to 3 teams and 2 items

I'm not mad that we Sherlock got a random event
I'm not mad about Sherlock items
heck I'll probably never use anything but the BG
but I know people out there wanted them

What I am mad at is the amount of spam that clogged the GCD
I'm not blaming Sherlock, this happened during the Ferris mini-event
and during that thing I did the same thing, hid and stayed away from the GCD
Did the same thing happen to on Talk Like a Pirate Day? My memory's a little fuzzy
All I know is that I kept my business to one thread like a decent person should
I'm generally not on much for events of that sort

People really, really need to learn to post in the threads that were already there
There are seriously like a couple dozen of the same threads floating around
They have like 2 pages of replies or threads talking about said item
Now I understand keeping everything in 1 thread would be overkill
the big thread was moving very fast when the thing started
But is keeping it to 2 or 3 threads too much to ask these days?

Or maybe it would have been best to make Sherlock a subforum in the hot topics forum
that way all those threads could go to a place that's used for general spamming of that sort of thing

Hmm what was the point of this thread again?
I've heard from quite a few people who share my view
and I get the feeling those who are Sherlock-biased keep misinterpreting their view
and then both parties just keep yelling at each other for no reason

Hey don't forget about that Avengers mini-event we got
It happened in concordance to the Star Wars thing
We got to 3 teams and 2 items

I'm not mad that we Sherlock got a random event
I'm not mad about Sherlock items
heck I'll probably never use anything but the BG
but I know people out there wanted them

What I am mad at is the amount of spam that clogged the GCD
I'm not blaming Sherlock, this happened during the Ferris mini-event
and during that thing I did the same thing, hid and stayed away from the GCD
Did the same thing happen to on Talk Like a Pirate Day? My memory's a little fuzzy
All I know is that I kept my business to one thread like a decent person should
I'm generally not on much for events of that sort

People really, really need to learn to post in the threads that were already there
There are seriously like a couple dozen of the same threads floating around
They have like 2 pages of replies or threads talking about said item
Now I understand keeping everything in 1 thread would be overkill
the big thread was moving very fast when the thing started
But is keeping it to 2 or 3 threads too much to ask these days?

Or maybe it would have been best to make Sherlock a subforum in the hot topics forum
that way all those threads could go to a place that's used for general spamming of that sort of thing

Hmm what was the point of this thread again?
I've heard from quite a few people who share my view
and I get the feeling those who are Sherlock-biased keep misinterpreting their view
and then both parties just keep yelling at each other for no reason

PS: Your thread title is rather witty

Oh yeah, no
I LOVED this event but the spam got to me as well
In the end, this event (and every other mini-event) could have done with a nice forum xD; A lot of the fandom events create so much spam (especially the ones where you change peoples sides by quoting them)

I do like getting fandom-related holiday events, even if I am not part of a fandom. Also not sure why it was a big deal that Sherlock Holmes got a special day...2/21/13 only comes around every 100 years! It's not like 221B was only from BBC Sherlock.

There are plenty plenty plenty of fandom items and items referencing pop culture on Gaia, and I don't think any in particular have gotten special treatment. A lot of items reference anime and videogames (understandably) and even if I don't know or care about where it comes from, I can still appreciate the item!

So yeah, the fact that people are upset about it is very weird to me.

Also, I think the 50th anniversary for Doctor Who is this fall (aired 1963), so I still have hope! But honestly if I don't get a special free item or event for it, I'm not going to complain about how unfair it is that x fandom got something and I didn't. These events are freebie for-fun things that Gaia staff probably is not paid extra to do, so I'm just going to appreciate it if it happens!

In the future, to prevent all the repeat threads spamming the GCD, perhaps Gaia should open up a Hot Topic forum on the day of these kinds of events, open for only one day or two (they did it for Talk Like A Pirate Day).

Oh yeah, no
I LOVED this event but the spam got to me as well
In the end, this event (and every other mini-event) could have done with a nice forum xD; A lot of the fandom events create so much spam (especially the ones where you change peoples sides by quoting them)

I'm sure if I was into the whole sleuthing thing it woulda been fun
but as it stands I don't watch and I haven't read so it was hard to care
I browsed through some threads and everything was going over my head
I can admire all the work that went into solving this though
Seems like a lot of sleepless people chugging along

I dunno I guess now that I think about it, it's hard to make a "fandom event"
and make sure that everybody is excited about it; non-fans aren't going to care
and a handful or more will consider all of the spamming a bother and blame it on the fandom

I do like getting fandom-related holiday events, even if I am not part of a fandom. Also not sure why it was a big deal that Sherlock Holmes got a special day...2/21/13 only comes around every 100 years! It's not like 221B was only from BBC Sherlock.

There are plenty plenty plenty of fandom items and items referencing pop culture on Gaia, and I don't think any in particular have gotten special treatment. A lot of items reference anime and videogames (understandably) and even if I don't know or care about where it comes from, I can still appreciate the item!

So yeah, the fact that people are upset about it is very weird to me.

Also, I think the 50th anniversary for Doctor Who is this fall (aired 1963), so I still have hope! But honestly if I don't get a special free item or event for it, I'm not going to complain about how unfair it is that x fandom got something and I didn't. These events are freebie for-fun things that Gaia staff probably is not paid extra to do, so I'm just going to appreciate it if it happens!

In the future, to prevent all the repeat threads spamming the GCD, perhaps Gaia should open up a Hot Topic forum on the day of these kinds of events, open for only one day or two (they did it for Talk Like A Pirate Day).

Okay, yeah, I THOUGHT the anniversary hadnt happened yet,but I had a lot of people bitching at Moffat that he'd missed it xD;;

Yeah, Im not really sure WHY Gaia doesnt make hot topic/forums for their mini events, since nearly all of them are post-based and spam the GCD like theres no tomorrow

Report spam threads biggrin Teach people the lesson that even though there's something going on, it doesn't give them the go button to post spam in forum with topic guidelines. This is another one of those report reaping times for all of you who want to become mods biggrin

The only thing about these 'events' that bothers me are the spam threads. That's pretty much it.

Ahhh I just dont understand why no one ever has the hindsight to made a hot topic for it ;3;
It helps keep everyone informed and keeps it mostly isolated.

I think the main problem for me with events like this is that I always feel left out and I'm sure others do too lol. I mean, events for me should include everyone and while, yes I got a free item, I don't care at all for the show nor Sherlock Holmes in general so I couldn't really...do anything. So I mean, I just sat there during this riddle thing feeling completely left out going "..where the hell did that idea even come from?".

At least with things like the Harry Potter event they had, I didn't need to actually know much about the series to feel involved. All I had to do was post in a forum to get involved :3.

It's a small thing though because this one (and most of the others) made a lot of people happy.

e: wow, I can't believe how many times I had used 'lol' in this post, what have I become?!

Okay, yeah, I THOUGHT the anniversary hadnt happened yet,but I had a lot of people bitching at Moffat that he'd missed it xD;;

Yeah, Im not really sure WHY Gaia doesnt make hot topic/forums for their mini events, since nearly all of them are post-based and spam the GCD like theres no tomorrow

There are plenty of more legitimate reasons to b***h at Moffat...BUT ANYWAYS...

Gaia needs to rotate its Hot Topics out more often! Keep things fresh so that my eyes don't glaze over those 5 subforums every time I head to the forum page. It would make it not seem so weird if they have a topic up only for a few days for these mini events.

I just can't fathom how anyone could feel annoyed about this?! Really! It's an item and was a fun little sleuthing event made by an artist of Gaia known to be a huge Sherlock fan.

Without her, I doubt we'd have gotten anything, and at least it wasn't a 'click to grant' style event!

We get plenty of fandom related items for free and in CI's and what not! If people are that into a fandom, they really could make petitions for more fandom related items, tbh! Put all that complaining energy into effort!

Report spam threads biggrin Teach people the lesson that even though there's something going on, it doesn't give them the go button to post spam in forum with topic guidelines. This is another one of those report reaping times for all of you who want to become mods biggrin

The only thing about these 'events' that bothers me are the spam threads. That's pretty much it.

Ahhh I just dont understand why no one ever has the hindsight to made a hot topic for it ;3;
It helps keep everyone informed and keeps it mostly isolated.

The problem is that whenever there's an event without an event forum, and someone in staff notices says "go to the GCD!" it's like this forum turns into a temporary event forum without any rules and guidelines, even though rules and guidelines exist here at all times. Everyone starts posting their own threads with copy/pasted information from preexisting threads in hopes of getting some sort of social kudos and it just starts cluttering up the front page with unnecessary repeat topics. Repeat topics are supposed to be okay but when there are 10+ threads with basically the same information copy/pasted from an older thread + 1 new sentence/speculation, it gets old fast. The GCD also get the strangest misplaced threads like the one guiding people how to trigger a hidden pose - no s**t sherlock! A whole thread just to tell people to equip an item with arm raised - wow!

They treat this forum like an event forum (thought of something new but don't like that it gets buried in a 200+ page long thread? Just make your own new thread and to s**t with the rules and guidelines of the GCD!) even though the GCD is really not an event forum. I appreciate the people who try to make their event-related threads into a discussion but most people do not put in the effort to follow the rules and guidelines for these types of mini events.

Though, if anyone hasn't noticed, it ain't exactly like we're a fast moving forum or anything. Even if we did get swamped with new threads on a topic, what does it really do? Upset the order a little? It doesn't last, and we'll be back to the same inane banter about items in no time.

I'd see it as a problem if it made us unable to find our regular topics because five hundred new threads were made in a day, but it's never been that way. Yeah, the first page gets 10 new topics. The usual ones are still there and can be found again pretty quickly. And to be honest, the topics are relevant site related discussion! We ~should~ be a catchall temporary event forum! But we've become so entrenched in item discussion that we've forgotten what the forum's for!

Discussion topics about Sherlock and it's birthday are a no-no. I agree.
Discussion topics about this particular sleuthing event are fine by me, imo!